All Outputs (11)

Social Preferences and the Variability of Conditional Cooperation (2024)
Journal Article
Baader, M., Gächter, S., Lee, K., & Sefton, M. (in press). Social Preferences and the Variability of Conditional Cooperation. Economic Theory,

We experimentally examine how incentives affect conditional cooperation (i.e., cooperating in response to cooperation and defecting in response to defection) in social dilemmas. In our first study, subjects play eight Sequential Prisoner's Dilemma ga... Read More about Social Preferences and the Variability of Conditional Cooperation.

The role of payoff parameters for cooperation in the one-shot Prisoner's Dilemma (2024)
Journal Article
Gächter, S., Lee, K., Sefton, M., & Weber, T. O. (2024). The role of payoff parameters for cooperation in the one-shot Prisoner's Dilemma. European Economic Review, 166, Article 104753. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.euroecorev.2024.104753

The Prisoner's Dilemma is arguably the most important model of social dilemmas, but our knowledge about how its material payoff structure affects cooperation is incomplete. We investigate the effect of variation in material payoffs on cooperation in... Read More about The role of payoff parameters for cooperation in the one-shot Prisoner's Dilemma.

Communication with partially verifiable information: An experiment (2023)
Journal Article
Burdea, V., Montero, M., & Sefton, M. (2023). Communication with partially verifiable information: An experiment. Games and Economic Behavior, 142, 113-149. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geb.2023.07.011

We use laboratory experiments to study communication games with partially verifiable information. In these games, based on Glazer and Rubinstein (2004, 2006), an informed sender sends a two-dimensional message to a receiver, but only one dimension of... Read More about Communication with partially verifiable information: An experiment.

A self-funding reward mechanism for tax compliance (2021)
Journal Article
Fatas, E., Nosenzo, D., Sefton, M., & Zizzo, D. J. (2021). A self-funding reward mechanism for tax compliance. Journal of Economic Psychology, 86, Article 102421. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.joep.2021.102421

We compare in a laboratory experiment two audit-based tax compliance mechanisms that collect fines from those found non-compliant. The mechanisms differ in the way fines are redistributed to individuals who were either not audited or audited and foun... Read More about A self-funding reward mechanism for tax compliance.

Social comparisons in job search (2019)
Journal Article
Fu, J., Sefton, M., & Upward, R. (2019). Social comparisons in job search. Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, 168, 338-361. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jebo.2019.10.013

© 2019 Elsevier B.V. Using a laboratory experiment we examine how social comparisons affect behavior in a sequential search task. In a control treatment subjects search in isolation, while in two other treatments subjects get feedback on the search d... Read More about Social comparisons in job search.

To tender or not to tender?: deliberate and exogenous sunk costs in a public good game (2018)
Journal Article
Heine, F., & Sefton, M. (2018). To tender or not to tender?: deliberate and exogenous sunk costs in a public good game. Games, 9(3), Article 41. https://doi.org/10.3390/g9030041

In an experimental study, we compare individual willingness to cooperate in a public good game after an initial team contest phase. While players in the treatment setup make a conscious decision on how much to invest in the contest, this decision is... Read More about To tender or not to tender?: deliberate and exogenous sunk costs in a public good game.

Disappointment aversion and social comparisons in a real-effort competition (2017)
Journal Article
Gaechter, S., Huang, L., & Sefton, M. (2018). Disappointment aversion and social comparisons in a real-effort competition. Economic Inquiry, 56(3), https://doi.org/10.1111/ecin.12498

We present an experiment to investigate the source of disappointment aversion in a sequential real-effort competition. Specifically, we study the contribution of social comparison effects to the disappointment aversion previously identified in a two-... Read More about Disappointment aversion and social comparisons in a real-effort competition.

How do risk attitudes affect measured confidence? (2016)
Journal Article
Murad, Z., Sefton, M., & Starmer, C. (2016). How do risk attitudes affect measured confidence?. Journal of Risk and Uncertainty, 52(1), https://doi.org/10.1007/s11166-016-9231-1

We examine the relationship between confidence in own absolute performance and risk attitudes using two confidence elicitation procedures: self-reported (non-incentivised) confidence and an incentivised procedure that elicits the certainty equivalent... Read More about How do risk attitudes affect measured confidence?.

Combining ‘‘real effort’’ with induced effort costs: the ball-catching task (2015)
Journal Article
Gaechter, S., Huang, L., & Sefton, M. (2016). Combining ‘‘real effort’’ with induced effort costs: the ball-catching task. Experimental Economics, 19(4), https://doi.org/10.1007/s10683-015-9465-9

We introduce the “ball-catching task”, a novel computerized task, which combines a tangible action (“catching balls”) with induced material cost of effort. The central feature of the ball-catching task is that it allows researchers to manipulate the... Read More about Combining ‘‘real effort’’ with induced effort costs: the ball-catching task.

Majoritarian Blotto contests with asymmetric battlefields: an experiment on apex games (2015)
Journal Article
Montero, M., Possajennikov, A., Sefton, M., & Turocy, T. L. (2016). Majoritarian Blotto contests with asymmetric battlefields: an experiment on apex games. Economic Theory, 61(1), 55-89. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00199-015-0902-y

We investigate a version of the classic Colonel Blotto game in which individual battlefields may have different values. Two players allocate a fixed discrete budget across battlefields. Each battlefield is won by the player who allocates the most to... Read More about Majoritarian Blotto contests with asymmetric battlefields: an experiment on apex games.

Risk taking and information aggregation in groups (2015)
Journal Article
Bougheas, S., Nieboer, J., & Sefton, M. (2015). Risk taking and information aggregation in groups. Journal of Economic Psychology, 51, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.joep.2015.08.001

We report a controlled laboratory experiment examining risk-taking and information aggregation in groups facing a common risk. The experiment allows us to examine how subjects respond to new information, in the form of both privately observed signals... Read More about Risk taking and information aggregation in groups.